Are you relying on your customers to come and find you? Is your marketing focus mainly on social media? Would you like a direct line to existing and potential customers? If the answer to any of these questions is yes, you will really benefit from building and using a mailing list.

It will enable you to:

• build customer loyalty
• increase sales to existing customers
• generate new business, and
• re-establish your relationship with lapsed customers

Used well, email marketing is cost effective and a powerful way to generate sales. It is also easy to set up a campaign, test your marketing, measure success and get results.

There are a wide range of platforms you can use for email marketing, but for this masterclass we will use MailChimp, which is widely used and free of charge until you have 2,000 contacts.

This masterclass will cover:

• Why build a mailing list? What are you aiming to achieve?
• Setting up your list in MailChimp and using tags
• Writing your first email campaign, testing and sending
• Analysing success
• Linking MailChimp to your website & Facebook
• Strategies for growing your list

This will be a practical session with time to think about how each element relates to your own business. To get the most out of the session please bring your laptop and set up an account with MailChimp before you come. It is free for up to 2,000 contacts.

Cathy Debenham has 30+ years of experience in marketing, communications and journalism . She started her career in the book publishing industry, then moved to the voluntary sector, where she worked for Arthritis Care and Hospiscare. In 2003 she became self-employed, initially as a marketing communications consultant, then set up the award-winning renewable energy website YouGen. She currently runs Bike Guide Devon, a mountain biking guiding business and is co-founder of The Lighthouse Sidmouth.

Who should attend

This masterclass is for small business owners, start ups, entrepreneurs, self-employed people, local charities and festivals and anyone who wants to be able to communicate more directly with customers and prospective customers.